62 Comments

The only thing missing from this otherwise well-written and complete piece is the WHY. Why is this process destroying our economy and our social fabric? Who is benefiting? Is this desctuction one part of a multipart campaign? Are weapons other than economic ones being deployed against the middle class citizenry? If so, who is the five-star general calling the shots?

Follow the money a leetle further down the trail, and the answers become somewhat obvious.

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Here we go again Erick… you say all those disheartening & true statements of the horribly tragic state of our country, then with your last words you down grade the ONLY person that is willing to stand up for ALL Americans.

He can’t be bought! He has his own $. He has tenacity. He withstood years of relentless attacks. He knows how to run a country to make it prosper! I’m proud to have someone standing up for ME and MY country.

Do you honestly think ANYONE ESLE wouldn’t cave to the powerful, overwhelming political decline in which we find ourselves?

You’re smart! But being President isn’t a popularity contest… at least NOT ANYMORE.

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"The unemployment rate is at 3.6%, which is virtually full employment. People 25-54 are working at a higher rate than any time in the last decade."

Could it be that AOC was correct when she said unemployment was so low because people were working 2 or 3 jobs? With the cost of everything going up, people are working more just to try and keep up, forget getting ahead.

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Agreed. AOC just proved the wisdom in that old saw about the broken clock.

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I'm confused. If this a conservative's view of the rich and elite, why is it that every time Republicans gain power, they hand these people a fat tax cut?

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They don't! Tax cuts go to those who pay taxes and most of those are the middle class and the small business owners! If you think tax cuts are only for the rich, you are buying into the left's propaganda my friend!

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The most effective propaganda is that which convinces you that it is the truth, and that the truth is mere propaganda.

Of course a tax cut benefits everyone who receives it, including the middle class and small business owners. However, with the rich paying more in taxes, the simple truth - purely as a matter of mathematics - is that a tax cut benefits them more than it does anyone else.

If you have been told anything else, THAT was propaganda.

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Jul 11, 2023·edited Jul 11, 2023

I beg to differ. Quoting the study below, "The top 1 percent’s income share rose from 20.1 percent in 2019 to 22.2 percent in 2020 and its share of federal income taxes paid rose from 38.8 percent to 42.3 percent. . . . The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (38.5 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (29.9 percent)."

https://taxfoundation.org/summary-of-the-latest-federal-income-tax-data-2020-update/

Now let me be clear. I am not saying that tax cuts do not benefit the middle class and small business owners. What I am saying, however, is that given these figures, if you cut taxes across the board, 38.8 percent to 42.3 percent of the benefit goes to the top 1%. Stated another way, small business owners (because they earn less and pay less in taxes) get a small benefit. Big business owners (because they make more and therefore pay more in taxes) get a big benefit.

That's not left wing propaganda. It's common sense. Only under right wing propaganda do the rich NOT benefit from tax cuts.

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Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023

"The top 1 percent’s income share rose from 20.1 percent in 2019 to 22.2 percent in 2020 and its share of federal income taxes paid rose from 38.8 percent to 42.3 percent. 

Paying 20% more of total taxes than their combined income would merit kinda blows the whole "the rich need to pay their fair share" narrative, doesn't it?

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Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023

Although "fair share" is a pretty subjective term, I tend to agree with you about the rich paying more than their fair share. However, having greater resources, they also have a greater ability to pay. So while I might agree that the rich pay more than their "fair share," I do not find that to be unfair because the only way the percentage of taxes paid by the rich would ever be equal to their percentage of total income is if everyone's income was taxed at the same rate. That is, Mark Zuckerberg would have to be taxed at the same rate as some guy who is barely making enough to keep his house. Stated simply, Zuckerberg should pay more than just his "fair share" . . . because he can.

Consider this. Should this great nation go to war, you and I will not be doing our "fair share" of the fighting because if you are like me, at the age of 67, I pull muscles getting out of bed in the morning. Rather, some much younger Americans will be going off to war in our stead. Why? Because they can, while we cannot.

The same basic notion is embodied in Luke 12:48, wherein Jesus said, "[U]nto whomever much is given, of him shall be much required . . . ."

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I'm almost 63, and have two titanium knees. I sound like a bowl of Rice Krispies getting out of bed in the morning.

If Zuckerberg pays 10% of $10,000,000, he'll naturally pay more than somene who pays 10% of $50,000. But both are paying the same rate, which to me, is fair.

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Guess we'll just have to disagree . . . except about neither of us being candidates for the Green Berets!

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Most small business owners use the business income on their own individual taxes!!! That means that most small businesses end up paying more taxes when taxes go up! Most of those big businesses DON"T pay a lot of taxes cuz whatever the taxes are, they pass that price onto the consumer so it's a wash! Also, whatever the rich pay in taxes most of that is NOT income but cap gains which is taxed at a lower rate! Rich folks don't pay my taxes so any time the government raises taxes, it hurts the middle class!!!! Tax cuts help everyone who pays taxes and we need smaller government with more money in the private sector so folks can innovate and entrepreneurs can build so we can get out from under the thumb of the Marxists who are tearing everything down causing folks misery and upcoming starvation and death! I don't want America to become another Venezuela and that's exactly where the Democrats are leading us! What we really need is a revival where our country's master is GOD and NOT government!

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Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023

Let me AGAIN acknowledge that small businesses and the middle class benefit from tax cuts. However, I just gave you a source showing that the top 1 percent of income earners paid from 38.8 to 42.3 percent of taxes in 2020. Unless you dispute that, it is thus apparent that 38.8 to 42.3 percent of any across-the-board tax cut (that is, the same tax rate reduction being applied to all taxpayers) benefits nobody except the top 1%. Spare me the ideological spiel. This is a matter of simple mathematics.

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The problem with almost the entire Left is they truly believe that they are doing good and are the good guys. I subscribe to a progressive newsletter and just finished a trip to Massachusetts over the 4th of July. It is not that they want to keep people down, it is because they believe in their heart of hearts that these folks are incapable of helping themselves. The Left for the most part live secluded from the misery they have wrought and if they hear about it they believe it is right wing propaganda.

As I said the real danger is not that they are consciously trying to do evil, they are true believers.

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I would agree given that most of my extended family fits that same profile, Paul. It is for this reason that I believe a winning strategy would be to drop the "us against them" rhetoric and start focusing on the 75% we DO agree on. None of us want homelessness, none of us want crime, none of us want racism, homophobia, or xenophobia, none of us want high taxes, and none of us want to kill the planet, but we disagree on HOW to handle those problems. If a candidate were to effectively address that disparity, I think it would go a long way towards healing this fracture that currently exists.

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I concur. I would only add, that the HOW is mired in two polar opposite worldviews. When one starts discussing the HOWS, the us vs. them inevitably arises. As a Christian, I approach it from a Biblical perspective while the "them" approach it from a worldly, secular perspective and regard the Bible at best superstition or worse - evil.

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VERY true!!

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Why are “they” so unwilling to discuss topics? They don’t think past their own words. It’s frustrating.

They want me to listen and change because they want better for me and I want the same for them, but they won’t engage in conversation. It’s simply childish.

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Karen - their own worldview traps them into it. I just lost a good friend (over 50 years) discussing politics which led to my witness as a Christian. He will not discuss it with me anymore and has cut off all communications. He even pulled out of a reunion we were going to have next year with others in our class.

It was an email discussion and I let my wife read it to see if I had crossed the line somewhere and she couldn't understand it either. To the world it is foolishness.

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That sucks, Paul. It really does. And Karen, I have family members who have spent countless hours researching systemic racism and what it means to be Black, yet they've never asked me the first question about my views as a conservative or a Christian. Why? Because MSNBC's Joy Reid has already told them what to believe and how to feel about me. And that sucks, too.

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The economic is defying expectations and is really good. The unemployment rate is at 3.6%, which is virtually full employment. People 25-54 are working at a higher rate than any time in the last decade.

BUT - Today, 7.2 million men have essentially dropped out of the workforce. More than 770,000 manufacturing jobs are open, according to the latest federal count, from November. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM IN AMERICA. Also, the people coming back into the workforce - who are they, what was their situation before getting a new job and is it a "second" job to pay their bills? Just asking.

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I got a friend who's husband has had trouble finding a job and he's in his 50's. His company was bought out and everyone laid off just before the pandemic. When the economy started to open up, he went out looking but he doesn't have a degree, just 30 years experience in management (doesn't help these days) and he flat out told me that he doesn't fit the right diversity hire since he's white! He can't afford attorneys to fight age discrimination, which this is, so he keeps looking. My friend, his wife, is going thru cancer treatment again and is now disabled so they are trying to make it on her disability and it's hard. I've tried to help but I have nothing extra either since everything costs so much these days! Whatever the government is saying is bull to those of us suffering their Marxist policies!

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Your husband need not hire an attorney. Just have him go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Whether he is a victim of race or age discrimination, they are supposed to take action against his employer and it won't cost him a thing.

Be forewarned, however, that what the EEOC will do concerning race discrimination is compare (1) the rate at which minorities with comparable qualifications are hired against (2) the rate at which whites with those qualifications are hired. If you take me up on this suggestion, you may just be surprised at the Commission's findings.

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Yep. My husband was looking to switch jobs within his company so he could travel less, and one opened up to head the division that he created 18 years ago. Of 1000 employees, he’s #3 in seniority hires. But even though he was overqualified, he didn’t get the job for all intents and purposes because he didn’t fit the diversity quota. When he asked the HR person why, she told him that although he had more experience and knowledge than others considered, he wasn’t “peppy enough.” WTH? I’m sure that’s codespeak for he’s white and in his 50’s.

I think most Americans are against this kind of thing in principle, yet it’s insidiously worked its way into every day life. Forgive me for thinking that qualification matters, and not just DEI. It’s going to take a lot of effort and backbone to turn this ship around.

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I’m vacationing in upper Michigan. We flew into Detroit and rented a hybrid Chrysler mini-van. I thought this would be great - I’d never have to fill up. After a 4 hour trip, I kept watching the gas needle go down and down. I soon realized that the only time the battery was being used was in the short stop and go environments in the parking lots and side streets where we stopped. Then, I spoke to a guy from Chicago who was asking about the hybrid and who also said they have a full EV at home. He said he loses about 1/3 the range during the winter. I told him about all the Teslas in Atlanta and he said those work much better in a warm climate. But it was Ok since they just drive it around town anyway.

Then, there’s my brother in law who lives in the Bay Area. They were going to get a Volvo EV SUV. They missed out on it because they had just gone on vacation when it arrived last year and with the shortage of supply, they were forced to give it up to the next buyer. Now, a year later, they purchased a fully gas powered BMW. They were talked out of the electric because they would need to update their electrical system to handle it. Additionally, their garage (like many garages in California) is not large enough for the SUV so they have to find some way to use a home charger outside of the garage. Their current vehicle barely fits and it’s a standard sized Mazda sedan. Plus, the dealer advised them of the fire risk of the EV and since they live in a townhouse decided it wasn’t worth the risk without all the other issues involved.

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Great post, you nailed it. God help us….

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It’s a matter of the rich making sure the poor cannot get off the social safety net.

This is liberals caring. They see middle America and the South from a private plane or first class at 30,000 feet. Their culture is one of guilt, they are both the prisoner and guard striving to show other liberals how much they care, that they care more, by virtu signaling.

They are the first product of the narcissistic culture war where everyone who wants something new must be actively affirmed. You can't just ignore them and go about your business. They must make you care the way they care.

What is CHAZ, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy the state capitol,, homeless tent cities if not Soviets, led by soldiers and Left's version urban industrial proletaria, the college educated with liberal arts degrees, student debt, and and inability to gain economic traction. They insist on privilege that defies the Constitution.

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"The man who tried in 2016 failed to fix the system. He and his best people were no match because he was too easily distracted and had no real vision."

Correct. And now Trump's "best people" are gone. Those who didn't wisely jump ship were stabbed in the back. It's past time to move on.

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Hire me to be your proofreader. I'll start for free.

"a battery powered vehicle that weights too much"

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Message send this morning

Hello Mr. President 🇺🇸

Hello Mr. President 🇺🇸you are fired for demeaning your staff by cursing them out. God and I don't appreciate you using his name in vain.

Repent and return to God. There is zero forgiveness outside the Pearly Gates .Jesus holds the keys to Heaven and Hell. There is no Priest to absolve you. You are on your own. You have currently chosen Hell where their is no beach or 7-11's Your money won't rescue you.

Ephesians 4:29

[29] Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear it.

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This sounds like China's influence is alive and well working through the Bidens and others in both houses. It is sad that our political system is no longer about hope and prosperity. I believe it was Lincoln who said, "a country divided is sure to fail". The two existing parties are so convoluted and scared to stand up for right from wrong. When you vote I hope you ask yourself if you and this country are better off now than when we had better leaders in government.

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Re: Electric Cars. This isn't about forcing us all to drive electric cars to "help the environment". It's about forcing us out of cars altogether.

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Anyone who saw Biden with King Charles saw an old man having to be led around like a child. If it were mine or your parents people would be asking if they were in an assisted living home. Instead, Biden is in the White House with the capability to launch nuclear weapons or wreck the economy through Executive Order. The next presidential election cannot come fast enough. Republicans need to purge the group of the no name, no chance candidates so they can focus on those with a real chance of winning. Hopefully a real candidate will take the lead with a sharpened message that resonates with the voting public. We have some good candidates this time around. We do not need to blow it nominating someone who cannot win the general election.

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Very good piece and VERY accurate. Love it when you get on your soap box and tell it like it is.

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